Allan Bird Photo: Facobook / Allan Bird
A Papua New Guinea MP who is being touted by the opposition as the next prime minister of the country says "my life is under threat".
East Sepik governor Allan Bird said since his nomination, he has been advised of this by a deputy police commissioner, who says they are monitoring the situation.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Bird claimed "senior Government Ministers" told him his phones have been illegally tapped.
"All the apparatus of State have been put on full alert to hunt down the most dangerous criminal in PNG: his name is Allan Bird," he wrote on Facebook.
"This is not the country I was born into, this is not the country the founding fathers envisioned."
He said "reliable sources" have told him various state institutions have been instructed to try and find anything illegal on him, and charge and arrest him.
Last week, Bird told RNZ Pacific the country needs to decentralise power to deal with its challenges.
He said PNG had "very serious challenges".
"Anyone who fixes these problems will be hated just like Sir Mekere [Morauta] did 25 years ago. Doing what needs to be done is not pretty, but it has to be done. Someone has to be willing to do the hard things.
"Many countries have problems, but not many countries have all those challenges all at the same time. PNG does so right now.
"If the problems aren't fixed quickly then they will continue to get worse. Most of our people experience these problems every day now. It's a struggle for survival."
